Fans of the original Star Trek series will remember “The Trouble with Tribbles,” where furry little alien creatures multiplied at an alarming rate on the deck of the Enterprise. Cities and suburbs are seeing their own troubling tribble issue in the form of mattress stores.
American Public Radio’s Marketplace recently reported that Chicago has 10 bedding storefronts in one mile. One mattress company has over 3,500 stores in the lower 48 states holding one-third of the market.
In total, there are over 10,000 specialty stores accounting for half the market share. The rest include furniture and appliance outlets.
The development is not without cause. The industry boasts annual sales of over $7 billion putting 35 million mattresses into the homes.
And while you can buy your next mattress online, most sales come from traditional brick-and-mortar stores as customers prefer to test-lie several models.
The rapid growth of these retail mattress outlets represents a real fuel-load hazard for fire departments. Moreover, mattresses and the challenge of a growing population is the recipe for an increase in bedding-related fires and ultimately room-and-contents fires growing into structural conflagrations.
A bit of history
In a recent five-year study, mattresses, with their concentrated materials and new chemistry, were reported as the first item ignited in over 10,000 residential fires accounting for over 371 deaths, 1,340 civilian injuries and over $400 million in direct property damage.
Granted, the total number of fires has decreased with the advent of sprinkler and alarm systems, increased regulations and their compliance by most manufacturers. Yet the Fire Science Reviews reports that the number of deaths per 1,000 of these types of fires is increasing at an alarming rate.
The problem becomes more urgent as storefronts continue popping up and mattress and foundation chemistry is being revolutionized from cotton and springs to molecular marvels and exotic foams.
The word mattress comes from the Arabic “matrah,” meaning “to throw down” as in putting a mat or cushion on the floor. Eventually wooden frames on legs with a rope cross pattern were devised to support such cushions. This medieval design gave rise to the expression “sleep tight” in faint hope that the ropes would not sag.
The invention of the steel coil spring in 1857, led to the first innerspring mattress being developed in 1871 in Germany by Heinrich Westphal. He received no ownership and died a poor man while his invention became the standard in mattress construction until the mid-20th century.
In the 1990s, queen size beds became the preferred size as the population grew and materials began to be created from various foams and polymers. Add to this the resurgence in air and water filled mattresses and it is evident a new era in bedding was beginning.
Early regulation
The dangers of mattress fires were acknowledged as far back as 1972 when the Standard for the Flammability of Mattresses and Mattress Pads was issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce under the Flammable Fabrics Act. These standards were very narrow in scope and were the result of subjecting various bedding products to a lighted cigarette, an unfiltered Pall Mall cigarette, to be specific.
Although these standards still exist under 16 CFR 1632.4(a)(2), it became obvious that other tests dealing with alternative ignition sources were needed. Studies were implemented but limited to fabrics, related materials and products that presented an unreasonable risk.
Tangible progress was slow and under the parameters of these new tests, unreasonable risk was not initially assigned to bedding fuel load as related to the fireground. Sadly, such materials would eventually become a major strategic determinate in fighting such fires.
During the tragic events of the Charleston Sofa Super Store fire of 2007, the concentration of fuel was misread and, despite of visual clues to the contrary, the large panel windows of the storefront were broken.
There were gray and yellow markers of flashover conditions in the dripping products of incomplete combustion streaming down from a line created by the intense heat pushing against the glass panes. This was a thermal balance exacerbated by the inventory and assemblies of furniture, beds and bedding as well as stuffed sofas and chairs.
When added to the fact that there were no sprinklers in the 60,000-square-foot warehouse store, the fuel load played a significant role in fire spread and ultimately in the death of nine firefighters.
New regs, new response
The deaths of 12 people on Oct. 31, 2006 in the Mizpah Hotel fire in Reno, Nevada, were determined to be a direct result of the excessive fuel load generated by mattresses stored in the hallways of the hotel’s second and third floors. The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s fire report characterized the mattresses as having a significant contribution to the overall intensity and spread of the fire.
In both cases, hazards associated with normal tasks were magnified. Open flame quickly deteriorated into hot gasses. In an atmosphere lacking oxygen and thermally balanced, mattresses sustain their smoldering and become an oxygenated bomb to an unsuspecting civilian or firefighter opening the wrong door or window.
One of the National Institute of Standards and Technology recommendations to come out of the Mizpah Hotel and Sofa Super Store fires was to concentrate on the science of ignition and fire spread as well as the production of smoke and gasses.
The experimental focus in these areas formed the criteria of the Open Flame Mattress Flammability Regulations beginning with 16CFR 1632 and 1633, established in the same year as the Charleston fire, 2007. The government was asking bed makers to create a mattress that would not ignite as quickly, burn as long or stay as hot.
Reputable manufacturers agreed with these new regulations driven by science and set out to make a safer product. Producers could do little about the various incantations of fiberglass and foam used in making beds so they impregnated their mattresses with flame-retardant chemicals thereby changing the ignition and sustainability levels of the final product to mutually acceptable federal standards.
Firefighters’ risk
For mattress and chemical companies, being flame-retardant while in compliance with federal regulations was seen as a major product improvement as well as protection from liability suits. Not having to change the content of mattresses by simply adding more chemicals seemed to be the most cost effective solution.
In reality, such a prevention measure adds 15 seconds of escape time to a bed’s occupants in the event of fire.
Health officials and scientists see a major health risk when it comes to introducing more chemicals into the home in the guise of another flame-retardant creation. These product defined by such elements as polyvinylchloride, antimony and butadiene-styrene creating bioaccumulators — chemicals that persist in our environment. Other chemicals found in mattresses and their additives have been determined to be developmental toxicants and carcinogens.
Already seen in many consumer goods such as furniture and paint, impregnating mattresses with such chemicals is questioned by some and considered by many to be the last straw. Currently, it is estimated that over 90 percent of today’s population has some level of flame-retardant chemicals in their body.
Firefighters know that flame-retardants give off higher levels of carbon monoxide, soot and smoke than untreated objects. They belong in the same class as DDT and PCBs. As one firefighter put it in an HBO documentary, “It’s Love Canal and it’s on fire.… These fires that we’re going to now are an absolute toxic soup.”
California’s conundrum
Following the flammability standards of 1972, California initially embraced the idea of making seating furniture safer when legislators passed Technical Bulletin 117 in 1975. This required cushioned furniture manufacturers to inject flame-retardant chemicals into all upholstered furniture sold in the state.
This de facto national standard resulted in a typical furniture piece to be loaded up with two to three pounds of additional chemicals. Concurrently, scientists found that exposure to these flame-retardant chemicals were directly related to an increase in various forms of cancer and reproductive problems.
California Gov. Jerry Brown responded by trying to initiate a new standard, eliminating the need for manufacturers to inject chemicals into upholstered furniture. Legislators agreed that the health risk was greater than the immediate threat of fire, but were unable to change the law due to the impediment of no voluntary standards at any level of government.
Any change would have to be an amendment to an existing federal mandatory standard, a high governmental hurdle for any state. To their credit, California lawmakers began reviewing and seeking public input in anticipation of moving regulations in the right direction.
Manufacturers saw such changes as having a direct impact on their businesses. Realizing this, they initiated steps to delay any new laws until their technology could respond in a manner appropriate to their business model, that of making money.
Material changes
While TB117 does not directly affect the flame-retardant requirements of mattresses, industry leaders and government officials recognized that commerce would not survive two separate laws pertaining to such intermingling of production.
A private group known as Citizens for Fire Safety began their own efforts to define the issue, but disbanded when it was found to have been organized by the three largest chemical companies known to contribute to the furniture and bedding industry.
Today, the work of company lobbyists is being carried out under another name. While serving to essentially delay changes in the law through an extensive marketing campaign, their extended expectation is to have the flame-retardant materials and their application become “greener” and more environmentally friendly in the future.
Victories in postponing legislation have given manufacturers the necessary time to create more products focused on health and safety. While the jury is still out on what to do about such hostile environments, mattress manufacturers see the writing on the wall.
California’s attention to changing the fire retardant laws is acknowledged to be a direct factor in pressuring bedding manufacturers to change their chemistry and products to provide a safer environment for consumers throughout the country.
Such changes in the content of bedding materials will make firefighting safer. While increasing fuel loads cannot be controlled, having a less toxic outcome to a lower level of flammability is critical toward lessening the health and hazard risks associated with such a fireground environment.
There were over 1,500 tribbles on the set of Star Trek. Such an abundance of latex, foam, glue and synthetic fur was described by lighting grips and scene technicians to be a direct fire hazard.
Today we see that same concern on spaceship Earth, as mattresses old and new accumulate in every corner of our planet.
